Friday, January 30, 2004

In my entry concerning our pilgrimage to see Dr. Omed (posted Tue, Jan 27, 4:34 a.m.), I make reference to the hovel he was living in at the time. I also lived in a hovel around that same period. Here, we see the good Doctor seated in the living area/bedroom of said domicile.

This apartment was on the second floor of an old house which had been converted into a series of apartments. I had this room, a kitchen, and a bathroom (tub, no shower). Dr. O has his back to my bed, which is near the window. You can see part of a Ricky Lee Jones poster on the left, and one of my bookshelves between the poster and the window.

Next to that tall, sagging plastic bookshelf, you can just barely see a smaller bookshelf; on top of which is an altar (you can just make out the point). This is an altar I built myself when I attended a church camp sometime in the late 1960s. May go without saying that I still have this altar today.

Under the Jones poster is a somewhat mysterious object, which looks like a plastic bag. I think this is a trophy I received in high school for a play I wrote during my senior year. For several years, I kept this trophy in a plastic bag, to protect it from dust.

Next to Dr. O's right hand is a poster promoting a reading of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which was done to celebrate the Summer Solstice. Prominate local poets and speakers spent the longest day of the year reading selections from that seminal work.

The good Doctor is flipping through a book reproducing William Blake's illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. Both this, and the Kerouac poster, prove my fascination with these authors goes back many years. As I recall, this picture was taken in the mid-1980s.

This is one of several b&w photos taken the evening Dr. O and I were featured readers at the fabled Town Tavern. In addition to reading our poetry, I sang several songs Dr. O and I had co-written. People listened respectfully, and applauded in good stead.